Graham Engineering Corporation

The Graham Group Acquires Controlling Interest in American Kuhne

October 1, 2012 York, PA, USA

The Graham Group, York, PA, announced today that it has acquired controlling interest in American Kuhne (A-K,) the Ashaway, RI-based, manufacturer of extruders, screws, and integrated extrusion systems. The controlling interest was acquired from The Kuhne Group of Sankt Augustin, Germany, which is owned by Peter Kuhne. The current management team of American Kuhne (A-K) will retain a minority interest in American Kuhne. No German assets of the Kuhne Group were included in the transaction. “American Kuhne has always operated independently of the Kuhne Group anyway, so the change in control will have no disruptive effect on our business,” stated Bill Kramer, President of American Kuhne. “Peter Kuhne has been an excellent partner since the founding of our company in 1997 and we are very enthused to have the Graham Group involved to support our future growth,” said Bill Kramer. He went on to say, “I am very pleased that our entire management team will remain in their current positions within
A-K and each of us continues to remain invested in our business. The most important thing is that this change in ownership will not affect our service to our customers or our products, but will bring additional resources and financial support for our future growth.”

“For the past few years as we have considered how to broaden and grow our machinery activities within business segments familiar to us, Graham Engineering has been carefully looking at potentially complementary businesses.” stated Wolfgang Liebertz, President of Graham Engineering Corporation (GEC). Liebertz noted that, “The addition of American Kuhne to the Graham Group’s machinery portfolio is very exciting to us. The ability to deliver a quality melt stream is the first step in any successful plastic processing technology. The experience and expertise of the team at American Kuhne is first-class; evidence of which is American Kuhne’s industry-leading position in the medical extrusion market, which is about as technically demanding as a process can get. Further, we were highly attracted by American Kuhne’s culture of dedicated service to its customers, which is very much aligned to the culture at Graham Engineering.” Dave Yenor, Vice President of Global Business Development for GEC, commented that, “From a market perspective, GEC has long participated in supplying machinery to the packaging markets, and has been involved in the industrial molding markets since the mid 1990s. Bringing American Kuhne into the equation now enables the Graham Group to immediately diversify our market presence into the medical industry, while participating with a technology that is a core competency of our current business; plastic processing technologies. We believe there will be significant opportunities to leverage the strengths of both American Kuhne and GEC to the mutual benefit of both organizations.”

“We both lead our respective markets in innovative technology and total system supply,” stated Steve Maxson, Vice President of Extrusion Systems, for American Kuhne. He added, “We think Graham Engineering can benefit from the extrusion expertise offered by A-K, particularly when it comes to our proprietary StewardTM Barrier Screw technology. Likewise, we are very excited about the opportunities to leverage the strengths of Graham Engineering, particularly in the area of process controls technology. We see opportunities to advance our position even more within the medical extrusion industry and to further develop complete systems for other markets, such as pipe and profile.”

“Graham Engineering, which is part of the Graham Group of Companies, offers a unique position as a strategic affiliate of American Kuhne,” stated Bill Kerlin, CEO of both Graham Engineering Corporation and Graham Capital Company. Kerlin went on to say, “Since 1960, when Donald C. Graham opened a design engineering firm in a farmhouse basement in central Pennsylvania, the Graham Group has undergone tremendous growth. Central to its ownership philosophy is the conviction that manufacturing companies must sustain industry-leading engineering capabilities, value-added manufacturing expertise, and strong internal financial controls to succeed.”

The Graham Group’s legacy businesses focus on industrial innovation through development and commercialization of new manufacturing techniques and use of new and innovative raw material formulations. Graham Engineering is a market leader in commercializing many manufacturing technologies, including machinery to produce plastic bottles for motor oil, detergents, dairy, juices, and food products, as well as large industrial parts. Graham Architectural Products, the engineering company that manufactures architectural and commercial windows, doors, and curtain wall products, is focused on providing solutions for strong thermal and energy efficiency, blast and impact performance, and acoustic or sound attenuation.

Graham Engineering is the technological engine driving the growth of The Graham Group’s legacy industrial businesses. Its core business is the manufacture and sale of high-speed plastics processing machinery, primarily for the packaging industry. Its equipment is sold under the Graham Engineering brand name to customers worldwide.

American Kuhne, Inc. is a leading worldwide supplier of standard and customized single screw extruders, feed screws, extrusion systems, and specialized turnkey systems for medical applications, pipe, tubing, and profile systems designed, developed, tested, and manufactured in Ashaway, RI. The company maintains several extruders and a medical tubing lab line capable of multi-lumen and taper tube extrusions available for customer trials in its facility in Ashaway, RI.